Sacred Souls: Genesis

“Make way, make way, Brother Meng is here.”

Chen Meng’s fans cleared a path among the crowd surrounding Queen Mei’s army. As the first leader to spearhead the rebellion, Chen Meng still had quite the reputation among players.

“Let’s just take a quick photo then I’m off to bed, I can’t anymore,” Chen Meng said, still making her way next to Queen Mei.

Chen Meng’s character was 1.8 meters tall, while Queen Mei only stood at 1.69 meters… When taking the screenshot for the photo, Chen Meng could hardly keep herself upright, her knees buckling almost causing her to fall, but at that moment, Queen Mei swiftly broke through the barrier of air and reached out to steady her.

“You… Are you okay?” Queen Mei looked at the Holy Spirit in Lion Heart Knight armor, concerned about her visibly weak condition.

“Are you asking me? Your hands are icy and soft, haha, but I’m really struggling to hold on. I wonder if you’ll remember this the next time I ‘replicate’.” Chen Meng’s consciousness became slightly clearer, and she was frozen for a moment, uncertain if such a question would be asked by an NPC, but her exhausted mind could no longer ponder such things.

“I will,” Queen Mei said softly.@@novelbin@@

Upon hearing this, Chen Meng was momentarily stunned, but eventually, with some reluctance, she pressed the log-off button. If she didn’t sleep soon, she might actually die from sudden exhaustion.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the players’ photo session continued.

“Praise the sun!”

“Members of Dancing Nuclear Guild, come get a group photo!”

“Abyss Temple guys, ah! Old Song, why not join us for the photo?”

“Screw off.”

The axe-wielding man on the side wasn’t left out, surrounded by players who all belonged to the Night Sprinters and Gray Eyes Association.

Seeing the players strike various poses for screenshots, the axe-wielding man also casually took out his weapon and struck various poses to accommodate the players’ photos.

The players’ celebration continued with singing and dancing for over an hour until Jiang Qiao felt it was about enough and closed the Divine Battle map, teleporting all players back to Lionheart City of the Holy Spirit.

The players’ Divine Battle walkthrough had finally drawn to a close, and it was time for the reward phase of Jiang Qiao’s Divine Battle.

The first reward was Queen Mei’s favorability.

“So this is your true appearance?” Queen Mei looked at Jiang Qiao as he shifted from a state of light into his game character.

Jiang Qiao’s game character ‘No Update Today’ had gone through several rounds of equipment updates since reaching level fifty.

Jiang Qiao now looked like a young Travel Mage, with short, black hair and deep purple irises, wearing a Summoner’s epic gear set, ‘Prayer of the Night Elf,’ a dark magic overcoat.

In addition to the standard Mage attire, Jiang Qiao also displayed two fashion items: pixel sunglasses and a lollipop held in his mouth.

The pixel sunglasses seemed to put quite the pressure on Queen Mei.

“This isn’t exactly my true self, but it’s more convenient to communicate with you like this,” Jiang Qiao said, removing the pixel sunglasses.

At that moment, Queen Mei was holding a pure blue crystal—Hai Lan’s Divine Fragment.

Queen Mei was not one for idle chatter. She knew Jiang Qiao was here for the Divine Fragment.

Jiang Qiao ascended the steps and reached out to touch the Divine Fragment in Mei’s hand. The axe-wielding man looked somewhat nervous because this Divine Fragment was essentially Queen Mei’s heart. The question hung in the air— if Jiang Qiao took it, whether Queen Mei could survive was an open question.

“I’ll preserve your strength, and everything in this city will be restored. Your four knights and the axe-wielding man will remain unaffected,” Jiang Qiao said as he touched the Divine Fragment.

“What should I do then?” Queen Mei had been considering since earlier what Jiang Qiao planned to do with her and her knights.

“You just need to repeat what happened three days ago,” said Jiang Qiao.

“Something that happened three days ago? But… I have already become…”

“Friends?”

Jiang Qiao guessed that Queen Mei was looking for the right adjective. The photo session process an hour earlier had truly made Queen Mei feel that her relationship with those players had ascended to the level of friends.

Queen Mei nodded to show her approval of Jiang Qiao’s statement.

“Being friends with the spirit knights doesn’t prevent them from ganging up on you. Of course, ‘ganging up’ is just a way of describing it. The specific details of the employment regulations and explanations will be discussed later; for now, well…”

Jiang Qiao’s pupils turned a pure gold hue, and under the creator mode, he began extracting the power from within this Hai Lan Divine Fragment.

Queen Mei actually had many questions she wanted to ask, but in that moment, a pale golden radiance blossomed before her eyes, causing her to momentarily lose focus in her vision.

When Queen Mei was able to open her eyes again, she found herself lying in a garden.

A garden?

In her world, flowers had withered hundreds of years ago!

“Your Majesty Mei!”

“Troy?”

Queen Mei saw a Hawkeye Knight kneeling beside her, an actual Hawkeye Knight… not a spirit cosplaying as one.

Their hands came together, about to say something, when Jiang Qiao’s voice interrupted the poignant moment of reunion.

“Ahem, can we talk about the reunion later? It’s time for a meeting.”

Jiang Qiao appeared at the end of the garden, together with something that every company has when writing planning drafts… a whiteboard.

“We will talk about Troy later.” Queen Mei astonishingly… listened to Jiang Qiao. She knew she needed to understand what Jiang Qiao was planning to do for them.

“But…”

“This is an order.”

The moment Queen Mei stood up from the flowerbed, a thick book suddenly fell from the sky. She reached out and caught it; the Hawkeye Knight also had an identical book in his hands.

“Please find a seat to sit down, students. If you prefer to stand while listening, that’s fine too.”

Jiang Qiao took out a teaching pointer and pointed at the whiteboard behind him. A number of desks and chairs appeared in front of Queen Mei.

The Hawkeye Knight gave Queen Mei another look, and with a slight nod from her, he reluctantly followed Jiang Qiao’s command to find a desk and chair to sit down at.

Sitting down with them were Lionheart Knights, Hawkeye Knights, and axe-wielding men. The Wolf Knight was still unconscious, so he couldn’t come over.

This scene looked quite amusing. Among all those present, only Queen Mei seemed like a student, while others like the Hawkeye Knight and Lionheart Knight, with their large statures, were awkwardly sitting on small chairs; the Hawkeye Knight especially looked quite distressed.

“First of all, welcome everyone. You have no choice in the matter. Now, I will teach you how to be a… qualified instance boss.”

As Jiang Qiao spoke, he wrote a title on the whiteboard with a marker, “Self-Cultivation of a Copy Boss.”

Queen Mei looked at the book she was holding. It had two titles. The first title matched the words Jiang Qiao had written on the whiteboard, and the second title was “The Lifestyle and Entertainment of Modern People,” followed by a note indicating it was a combined edition.

“I will only teach this lesson once, so everyone should listen carefully and make sure to take good notes,” Jiang Qiao said.